Matching Items (408)
ContributorsWard, Geoffrey Harris (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2018-03-18
Description
Learning academic vocabulary is part of the curriculum for elementary students. Many gifted students learn new words easily but do not necessarily feel positive about studying vocabulary at school. They also do not transfer these words to their own writing. This researcher used games in her own fifth-grade classroom to teach vocabulary and measured the use of these words in the students' writing. This study also examined students' attitudes about learning vocabulary through games. This mixed-methods study used quantitative data to study the students' retention of the vocabulary words, their usage of the words in their writing, and their attitude toward playing games to learn vocabulary. The researcher also used qualitative data to measure the students' attitudes toward learning with games. Three different vocabulary games were used and one editing game was used during this 18-week study. Quantitative data from test scores and questionnaire responses were analyzed comparing pre and post responses. Writing samples and word tallies were collected throughout the study. Students learned the definitions of vocabulary words while playing games and retained the meanings after 18 weeks, achieving a mean score on the posttest of 71%. No significant usage of the relevant words in student writing samples was found. Qualitative data from questionnaires and field notes were coded and analyzed. A significant gain was shown in how students felt about studying vocabulary after playing games. This study showed positive results in all areas measured.
ContributorsRagatz, Carolyn Mae (Author) / Carlson, David L. (Thesis advisor) / Gee, Elisabeth (Committee member) / Stamm, Jill (Committee member) / Cash, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
During the first half of the last decade, there was a heated debate regarding what type of critical approach best suits the study of video games. Those who argued for approaches traditionally associated with narrative studies were primarily interested in video games as a new frontier for storytelling. The opposition claimed that video games are not systems for storytelling, and that applying literature and film theories to video games dismisses the interactive nature of video games as games. The argument was bitter, but ended abruptly with no clear results or consensus. Yet are narratology and ludology, the two proposed critical theories, so disparate that the use of one means the exclusion of the other? This paper suggests the possibility that narratology and ludology share more in common than critics have thus far realized. Both games and story share themes of conflict, and in focalizing on the antagonist of single-player video games it becomes possible to trace the development of conflict and how it functions in the video game medium. In analyzing antagonists and the conflict they embody, it becomes apparent that narratology and ludology are not so incompatible in their methodologies and assumptions. Finally, because video games themselves are a multifaceted medium, it is only appropriate that critics use multiple theoretical approaches in their analysis to broaden critical knowledge of how the medium functions.
ContributorsNeel, James (Author) / Hayes, Elisabeth (Thesis advisor) / Gee, James P (Committee member) / Daer, Alice (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
ContributorsBolari, John (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2018-10-04
Description
As part of a group project, myself and four teammates created an interactive children's storybook based off of the "Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" in Neal Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age. This electronic book is meant to be read aloud by a caregiver with their child, and is designed for reading over long distances through the use of real-time voice and video calling. While one part of the team focused on building the electronic book itself and writing the program, myself and two others wrote the story and I provided illustrations. Our Primer tells the story of a young princess named Charname (short for character name) who escapes from a tower and goes on a mission to save four companions to help her on her quest. The book is meant for reader-insertion, and teaches children problem-solving, teamwork, and critical thinking skills by presenting challenges for Princess Charname to solve. The Primer borrows techniques from modern video game design, focusing heavily on interactivity and feelings of agency through offering the child choices of how to proceed, similar to choose-your-own-adventure books. If brought to market, the medium lends itself well to expanded quests and storylines for the child to explore as they learn and grow. Additionally, resources are provided for the narrator to help create an engaging experience for the child, based off of research on parent-child cooperative reading and cooperative gameplay. The final version of the Primer included a website to run the program, a book-like computer to access the program online, and three complete story segments for the child and narrator to read together.
ContributorsLax, Amelia Ann Riedel (Author) / Dove-Viebahn, Aviva (Thesis director) / Wetzel, Jon (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Financial statements are one of the most important, if not the most important, documents for investors. These statements are prepared quarterly and yearly by the company accounting department, and are then audited in detail by a large external accounting firm. Investors use these documents to determine the value of the company, and trust that the company was truthful in its statements, and the auditing firm correctly audited the company's financial statements for any mistakes in their books and balances. Mistakes on a company's financial statements can be costly. However, financial fraud on the statements can be outright disastrous. Penalties for accounting fraud can include individual lifetime prison sentences, as well as company fines for billions of dollars. As students in the accounting major, it is our responsibility to ensure that financial statements are accurate and truthful to protect ourselves, other stakeholders, and the companies we work for. This ethics game takes the stories of Enron, WorldCom, and Lehman Brothers and uses them to help students identify financial fraud and how it can be prevented, as well as the consequences behind unethical decisions in financial reporting. The Enron scandal involved CEO Kenneth Lay and his predecessor Jeffery Skilling hiding losses in their financial statements with the help of their auditing firm, Arthur Andersen. Enron collapsed in 2002, and Lay was sentenced to 45 years in prison with his conspirator Skilling sentenced to 24 years in prison. In the WorldCom scandal, CEO Bernard "Bernie" Ebbers booked line costs as capital expenses (overstating WorldCom's assets), and created fraudulent accounts to inflate revenue and WorldCom's profit. Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison and lost his title as WorldCom's Chief Executive Officer. Lehman Brothers took advantage of a loophole in accounting procedure Repo 105, that let the firm hide $50 billion in profits. No one at Lehman Brothers was sentenced to jail since the transaction was technically considered legal, but Lehman was the largest investment bank to fail and the only large financial institution that was not bailed out by the U.S. government.
ContributorsPanikkar, Manoj Madhuraj (Author) / Samuelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Ahmad, Altaf (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The thesis document describes in detail the decision making process and research that went into each step in the process of designing, coding, launching, and marketing a mobile game. This includes major challenges and methodologies for overcoming them or changing course as well as significant revisions that were made to the game upon receiving market and user feedback. The game, Sheep In Space, was launched on to the Windows Phone 8 marketplace initially via the use of the GameMaker: Studio game engine. From there, following a series of revisions Sheep In Space launched on the Android marketplace and has been undergoing further changes before the final launch to iOS. The revision and launch strategy was determined based off of market feedback from a variety of facets, including direct word of mouth, reviews, downloads, analytics data, and social media reaction.
ContributorsGagliano, Laura Katherine (Author) / Prince, Linda (Thesis director) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-12
DescriptionThis project explored the creation of a video game to be used as a tool to enhance the process of French language learning. The work on the project was divided into three different phases that were tackled individually: a research phase, a development phase, and a content-creation phase.
ContributorsDebeurre, Nicholas Harrison (Co-author) / Dommata, Samhith (Co-author) / James, Jovin (Co-author) / Khan, Faiz (Co-author) / Bahtchevanova, Mariana (Thesis director) / Winter, Marie (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Liminal Space is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game designed to facilitate performative, personalized, and critical exploration of identity, value and truth dissensus; contemporary social, technological, political, and environmental issues; and modes of relating to socio-technical change, instability, and uncertainty. Pen-and-paper roleplaying games emerge from a 40-year history as an entertainment medium, but in recent decades have displayed the ability to personally speak to more "serious" issues. Mechanically, they combine elements of classroom or public-engagement, pedagogic, roleplaying exercises with benefits or participatory scenario construction, allowing players to immerse themselves in bespoke situations reflecting their personal interests, anxieties, and pedagogic aims and to reflexively and critically engage with contested truths or social disruptions in a safe space. Formal studies of roleplaying games are sparse, and I, the author, hope that Liminal Space can draw more study to a unique communication, entertainments, and performance medium and to the unique communities that surround it.
ContributorsNelson, John Paul (Author) / Bennett, Michael (Thesis director) / Keeler, Lauren (Committee member) / School for the Future of Innovation in Society (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The functional programming paradigm is able to provide clean and concise solutions to many common programming problems, as well as promote safer, more testable code by encouraging an isolation of state-modifying behavior. Functional programming is finding its way into traditionally object-oriented and imperative languages, most notably with the introduction of Java 8 and in LINQ for C#. However, no functional programming language has achieved widespread adoption, meaning that students without a formal computer science background who learn technology on-demand for personal projects or for business may not come across functional programming in a significant way. Programmers need a reason to spend time learning these concepts to not miss out on the subtle but profound benefits they provide. I propose the use of a video game as an environment in which learning functional programming is the player's goal. In this carefully constructed video game, learning functional programming is the key to progression. Players will be motivated to learn and will be given an immediate chance to test and demonstrate their understanding. The game, named Lambda Starship (stylized as (lambda () starship)), is a 3D first-person video game. It takes place in a spaceship that, due to extreme magnetic interference, has lost all on-board software while leaving the hardware completely intact. The player is tasked to write software using functional programming paradigms to replace the old software and bring the spaceship back to a working state. Throughout the process, the player is guided by an in-game manual and other descriptive resources. The game is implemented in Unity and scripted using C#. The game's educational and entertainment value was evaluated with a study case. 24 undergraduate students at Arizona State University (ASU) played the game and were surveyed detailing their experience. During play, user statistics were recorded automatically, providing a data-driven way to analyze where players struggled with the concepts introduced in the game. Reception was neutral or positive in both the entertainment and educational sides of the game. A few players expressed concerns about the manual in its form factor and engagement value.
ContributorsCompton, Tyler Alexander (Author) / Gonzalez-Sanchez, Javier (Thesis director) / Bansal, Srividya (Committee member) / Software Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05